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THE VALUE MODEL INSTITUTE — Getting Started · SECONDARY PAGE FORMAT · v08212026
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<div class="vmi-eyebrow">Getting Started</div>
<h1>Launching the Agency Model Map diagnostic for your agencies</h1>
<p class="vmi-lede">See everything involved in the Institute's introductory program: what your agencies experience, what your association receives, how we protect agency data, and the steps to launch. There is no charge for this introductory program.</p>
<div class="vmi-head-cta"><a class="vmi-btn-coral" href="https://www.valuemodelinstitute.com/contact">Request Your Association's Link</a></div>
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<div class="vmi-rail-label">On this page</div>
<a href="#vmi-included">What's included</a>
<a href="#vmi-diagnostic">The diagnostic</a>
<a href="#vmi-agency">What each agency receives</a>
<a href="#vmi-report">Your association's report</a>
<a href="#vmi-data">Data and confidentiality</a>
<a href="#vmi-launch">How to launch</a>
<a href="#vmi-questions">Common questions</a>
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<h2 id="vmi-included">What's included</h2>
<p>The introductory program provides three things for your agencies and one for your association's leadership.</p>
<ul class="vmi-check">
<li><strong>A five-minute online Agency Model Map diagnostic.</strong> Each agency learns how its current commercial model is impacting its business. We provide you with a link to send to your agencies.</li>
<li><strong>Personalized agency roadmaps.</strong> Each agency receives a roadmap for what to change first.</li>
<li><strong><em>State of the Agency Value Model</em> report, an edition specific to your association.</strong> A co-branded PDF report (a minimum of 20 completed diagnostics required). Agency data stays confidential and anonymized, reported as aggregated results.</li>
<li><strong>Strategic Review call for your leadership.</strong> A private readout with you and your board to discuss what the trends in your members' results mean for your own organization's revenue model.</li>
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<h2 id="vmi-diagnostic">The diagnostic</h2>
<p>The Agency Model Map diagnostic is a five-minute online assessment for agency CEOs and CFOs. No accounts or passwords are created or required. An agency follows your association's link, answers the questions, and receives its results immediately.</p>
<h3>What it asks</h3>
<p>The questions cover how the agency defines its value, designs its offerings, delivers the work, and captures the value it creates: the four levers of the Agency Value Model. Each question addresses a specific commercial practice.</p>
<h3>Who it's for</h3>
<p>The diagnostic was built from consulting work with independent agencies as well as multinational networks and holding company firms. The questions address the commercial model every agency runs on, so the results are as relevant to a 30-person independent as to a global group.</p>
<h3>How to complete it</h3>
<p>One leader can complete it alone in about five minutes. We recommend the leadership team sits around one table and completes it together. The disagreements it surfaces are half the value: they show leaders where they read their own model differently.</p>
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<h2 id="vmi-agency">What each agency receives</h2>
<p>The moment an agency completes the diagnostic, it learns which of four commercial model patterns it matches, what that pattern makes possible, and where it constrains the business. Lodestar identified these four patterns, called archetypes, across hundreds of agencies changing their commercial models.</p>
<p>Each agency also receives a roadmap for what to change first. The roadmap prioritizes the firm's next commercial changes based on its results, naming the specific practices to address and the order to address them in, so leadership leaves with a starting point rather than a score.</p>
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<section>
<h2 id="vmi-report">Your association's report</h2>
<p>Once a minimum of 20 of your agencies complete the diagnostic, we produce a co-branded PDF edition of the <em>State of the Agency Value Model</em> for your market: which archetypes dominate, where your agencies are strongest, and where the shared risks sit.</p>
<h3>Why 20 completions</h3>
<p>The 20-completion minimum protects two things: the reliability of the findings and the anonymity of each agency. Below that floor, individual firms could become identifiable in the aggregate. We can confirm your completion count at any time while your campaign runs.</p>
<h3>The timeline</h3>
<p>Once your agencies hit the minimum and your completion window closes, we synthesize the data and deliver your report within two weeks. We then schedule your Strategic Review call: a private readout with you and your board on what the trends mean for your agencies, and what they mean for your own organization's revenue model.</p>
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<h2 id="vmi-data">Data and confidentiality</h2>
<ul class="vmi-check">
<li><strong>Anonymized and aggregated, always.</strong> No individual agency's responses are visible to your association, to other agencies, or in any report. Results appear only as aggregated findings.</li>
<li><strong>Never shared or sold.</strong> Diagnostic data is used for your association's report, for industry research, and to improve the Institute's programming. Nothing else.</li>
<li><strong>A written agreement covers all of it.</strong> Before we produce your report, your association signs a short data agreement covering how we handle agency data and how the report can be used. It contains no financial terms. Your agencies can see the data-use policy on the diagnostic page itself.</li>
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<h2 id="vmi-launch">How to launch</h2>
<p>Five steps from here to your Strategic Review.</p>
<div class="vmi-roadmap">
<div class="vmi-roaditem">
<div class="vmi-when">Step 1</div>
<h4>Receive your association's link and launch kit</h4>
<p>We create a link specific to your association. Every agency that completes the diagnostic through your link is tagged to your association, which is how we segment the data for your report. Your launch kit includes ready-to-use announcement copy for email and LinkedIn, with guidance on what to adapt and what to keep consistent.</p>
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<div class="vmi-roaditem">
<div class="vmi-when">Step 2</div>
<h4>Sign the data agreement</h4>
<p>You can begin promoting the diagnostic right away. We need the signed agreement back before we produce your report.</p>
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<div class="vmi-roaditem">
<div class="vmi-when">Step 3</div>
<h4>Share the diagnostic with your agencies</h4>
<p>Send the announcement to your agency leaders, or complete the diagnostic together at a board or committee meeting. Many associations start with their steering committee or board members, then widen to the full membership.</p>
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<div class="vmi-roaditem">
<div class="vmi-when">Step 4</div>
<h4>Reach 20 completed diagnostics</h4>
<p>Each agency receives its personalized results immediately. We can confirm your running completion count whenever you ask, so you know when you've crossed the minimum.</p>
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<div class="vmi-roaditem">
<div class="vmi-when">Step 5</div>
<h4>Receive your report and hold your Strategic Review</h4>
<p>Two weeks after your completion window closes, you receive your association's co-branded report. We then meet privately with you and your board to review what the findings mean for your agencies and for your organization.</p>
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<h2 id="vmi-questions">Common questions</h2>
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<h4>Is this relevant for independent and smaller agencies, or is it built for global groups?</h4>
<p>Both. The diagnostic was built from consulting work with independent agencies as well as multinational networks. The questions address the commercial model itself: how the firm defines, designs, delivers, and captures value. Every agency runs on that model, whatever its size, so the results and the roadmap apply equally.</p>
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<div class="vmi-qaitem">
<h4>Some of our agencies completed the diagnostic in the past. Should they take it again?</h4>
<p>Yes. We update the questions as the industry changes, and your association's report reflects only current responses. A fresh completion ensures each agency's results, and your market's data, are up to date.</p>
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<div class="vmi-qaitem">
<h4>Do our agencies need accounts or logins?</h4>
<p>No. No accounts or passwords are created or required. An agency follows your association's link, completes the diagnostic, and receives its results. There is nothing to install.</p>
</div>
<div class="vmi-qaitem">
<h4>Can we complete it together at a meeting?</h4>
<p>Yes, and it works well. Some associations bring their steering committee or board together and have each agency complete its diagnostic during the meeting. It guarantees a strong completion count and starts the market conversation in the room.</p>
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<div class="vmi-qaitem">
<h4>What does launching cost?</h4>
<p>Nothing. The diagnostic, the agency roadmaps, your association's report, and the Strategic Review call are the Institute's introductory program, provided at no charge. Paid program plans exist for associations that want to go further, and your report will make clear whether that's worth discussing.</p>
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<div class="vmi-qaitem">
<h4>Who sees our market's report?</h4>
<p>You do. The report is delivered to your association, and you decide how to share it with your agencies. How the report can be used is covered in the data agreement.</p>
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<div class="vmi-eyebrow">Next Step</div>
<h2>Request your association's link</h2>
<p>Contact us and we'll prepare your association's tagged link, launch kit, and data agreement.</p>
<a class="vmi-btn-coral" href="https://www.valuemodelinstitute.com/contact">Contact Us</a>
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